
Individuals and Families with Complex Estates (Page 5)
Estate Documents for a Complete Plan
Your will or trust is just one document in a comprehensive estate plan. Drafting a Power of Attorney and a Living Will (Advance Healthcare Directive) to allow others to act on your behalf in case you are incapacitated or otherwise need assistance is also a good idea. Our online partner platform gives you the option to create both documents at no cost to you. Your state may have restrictions on who can serve as an agent, so we recommend reviewing regulations on your state’s website to ensure your agent would be eligible to serve if needed. Your state’s website may also have blank templates of these documents available.
POA
A Power of Attorney (POA) designates someone to act on your behalf for personal and/or financial matters. This designee is called your agent or attorney-in-fact. You can give your agent general powers to act on your behalf in any matter, or you may limit their powers. There are two primary types of POA documents available: a durable POA goes into effect immediately upon signing, enabling your designated agent to act on your behalf in any time of need, and would also continue throughout your incapacity; a springing POA gives your agent power in the future, only upon the occurrence of a specific event you define, such as a physician certifying your incapacity in writing.
Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive
A Living Will documents your wishes regarding medical decisions in case you are incapacitated or otherwise unable to make your own medical decisions. This is often combined with an Advance Healthcare Directive, which designates someone to act on your behalf for such healthcare decisions. By drafting these documents, you can ensure your emergency or end-of-life medical care wishes are met while also providing guidance for your agents and loved ones so they can take comfort in knowing they are acting according to your wishes.
Non-Legal Supplemental Documents
When storing your estate documents, it is helpful for your executor to have a list of all your accounts.
An Account List/Beneficiary Plan document can organize your account information in one place so your executor knows whom to contact to facilitate the transfer of your accounts to their beneficiaries (or to the estate if no living beneficiaries are named).
A similar helpful list you can include is a Digital Asset Inventory. This would include logins and passwords for your social media, financial institutions, online vendors, and even your computer itself. You can also include instructions for your digital executor to deactivate memberships and social accounts or distribute things like your digital photos to your loved ones.
In addition, a Letter of Instructions or Personal Property Memorandum can provide instructions for distributing tangible personal property directly to friends and family. Since this is a supplemental document drafted by you, you could make the letter very personal and even explain why you want certain items to be passed to each person.
Finally, if your will or trust does not have a section for a personal statement, you could consider including one as a separate letter. Your Personal Statement is also a great place to include your personal testimony or other statement of faith, ensuring that your love for Jesus is passed down in your legacy.
Prayer and Action Items
☐ Decide if you would like to create or update your POA and Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive – and pray through who you would select as your agents for each.
☐ Consider one or more of the non-legal supplemental documents and start gathering the pertinent information in one central location. (We highly recommend creating an Account List/Beneficiary Plan and a Digital Asset Inventory.)
Next Steps
If one or more of the situations in this section apply to you, or if you’re interested in discussing other complex estate issues in greater detail, one of our Gift & Estate Design Consultants can walk you through all considerations from a biblical perspective. We are here to serve The Alliance family where faith and finance meet. Click here to schedule a call with one of our consultants.
Our online tools and personalized consultations offer a variety of biblically based, tax-wise options that make it easy to support local and global Alliance ministries while bringing tangible returns on your investments.
If you feel prepared to draft your documents now, we recommend working with an estate planning attorney. For references to attorneys in your area, Contact Us or check out the links in the Additional Resources below.
Additional Resources
There are many online tools available to draft estate documents. These tools can be a good fit for less complex estates but often don’t allow for customized solutions. An attorney will usually be the best fit if you are looking to customize your plan in any way.
If you are interested in finding out the capabilities of online tools, we have a free partner platform available here.
Even if you draft your will or trust through an estate planning attorney, this tool can be helpful in drafting a free Power of Attorney or Living Will/Advance Healthcare Directive. Optionally, you can utilize our custom guides to collect the needed information in advance of drafting these documents on our partner platform:
If you are interested in hiring an estate planning attorney, financial advisor, or other financial professional, these links contain searchable databases of Christian professionals in your area:
Questions?
For questions about using our online partner platform, please visit our Will Planning Partner Platform FAQs page.
For any estate planning-related questions, please email or call 866-802-1490, and one of our team members will be happy to assist you.
